Egypt’s foreign ministry has ordered its embassy in Washington to file a complaint to the US State Department regarding recent remarks by its deputy spokeswoman, according a Sunday statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry.
When asked in a Thursday press briefing why military aid to Israel had not suspended as it had been for Egypt in October 2013, deputy spokeswoman for the State Department Marie Harf said the distinction was that Egyptian government had been using the US aid “against its own people”.
Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry instructed the embassy to file the complaint, stating that the comment “have nothing to do with reality” and asserting that the statements issued by the spokespersons of the State Department should “reflect facts in the future”.
Harf called Israel’s operations in the Gaza strip “wholly different” and “not comparable” to the case of Egypt. “The Egyptian government was cracking down on its own people,” she said. “In Israel, you have a government fighting an external threat coming from Gaza that is from a terrorist organisation”.
Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty said in a statement on Saturday that Harf’s comments “fall short and are completely ignorant of realities of matters in Egypt”, adding that the comments were” lacking the most basic rules of credibility and objectivity through an unacceptable and unjustified comparison between Egypt and Israel”.
